Ashton continued to walk, hell bent on his destination. He was still walking when he heard a yell from behind him. Instantly, he turned around, holding up his baseball bat and drawing his kitchen knife as he did so.

"Calm down man, it's only me. Only Robbie".

"Lemme see you" answered Ashton.

"Chill man", Robbie stepped into the dim glow of Ashton's battered flashlight.

"Where you going" Robbie wanted to know.

"Well, lemme see. We're almost out of the tollbooth area and I wanna go to King Plaza, probably gonna be some kids"

"You insane. Yeah you are. You're never ever, ever, gonna make it to Kings Plaza in one piece. It's like 11:00 now and around 12:00, they gonna come. The sickos. Hunting for us. No, our best chance is to….. I dunno get to dat Toys R Us. You know, I bet there are some kids there".

"HOLY FUCKING HELL" Ashton suddenly screamed pointing to the fire in Rockaway. It was absorbing the whole of Rockaway with ease. Ashton saw kids screaming and cursing as they perished from the treacherous flames of hell. Rockaway had turned into one big inferno ridden wasteland. Ashton saw kids trying to swim across the water to Brooklyn and failing, the water killing them.

"Nothing we can do for them dude. Lets get the hell outta here", Robbie said.

The duo pair of survivors continued to walk towards Toys R Us. Robbie checked his watch.

"Holy fuck man, it's 11:30 we gotta run"

With that, the duo pair of survivors ran into the night sky. Out of the corners of their eyes, they could see grown ups emerging from various places, and that made them run faster. There was Toys R Us ahead of them, a beacon of hope and survival. They ran threw the parking lot and stopped in front of it. Robbie took his bat and smashed it into the lock, braking it easily. He stepped inside and cursed.

"Anyone in here? Anyone?" Robbie said in hope that some gang of kids had taken shelter in Toys R Us. There was a long silence, and the two teenagers were forced to realize that they were alone. They were vulnerable and scared.

Ashton flicked on his flashlight and cursed jumping a step backwards as he took in the scene in front of him. It was everywhere. On the walls, smeared on doors, cracked windows, all over the floor on boxes, counters and displays. It's color ranged from a light, light pink to a deep crusty dark red. It oozed under the broken floorboards, in cracks on the wall. Everywhere. You could barely find a place in the Toys R Us that had escaped it's touch. Blood. Blood and bloody body parts. A hand here, an arm there.

As the two teenagers carefully stepped around the scattered displays,boxes and articles of clothing, they got an eyeful and earful of it (Blood dripped from the ceiling). Muttering curses, they trudged deeper and deeper into the blood-filled wasteland.

Ashton turned to Robbie.

"These…. these are the remains of the children who were here when it all started"

"No shit, Sherlock, anyway I don't wanna camp here for the night. It's to…."

He suddenly stopped and turned back to Ashton, eyes wide with fright.

"Ashton, t-turn around"

Ashton turned and screamed doubling back a step. Out of corners and aisles, adults emerged. Slowly, surely coming towards the teenagers. There were so many of them and they swarmed around the kids coming closer and closer. Ashton turned to Tommy

"Lets run now while there still regrouping and joining together"

"Okay 3, 2, 1!"

Ashton and Robbie raised their bats and smashed through the first rank of grown ups. They charged out of Toys R Us and into the night. It was now 12:03. The grown ups were all over the streets. They saw Ashton and Robbie, and they both cursed in unison.

"Nice knowing you" Robbie said grimly.

"You to….. Wait, I've got a plan! Behind Toys R Us is water. Pretty sure they are some boats there to. We can stay there overnight" Ashton answered.

"Thats not gonna work but lets give it a shot" Robbie charged towards the water, eyes scanning the horizon for a boat.

"THERES NO DAMN BOATS ASSHOLE" he yelled at Ashton.

Suddenly, there was a noise. The noise of…. a car! Ashton jumped back in shock as he saw a navy blue 4 times 4 truck breached the horizon. It screeched to a stop in front of Ashton and he stared in amazement at the kids inside it. In the passenger seat was a tall muscular kid with long, shaggy reddish black hair. He carried a steel iron black machete, and a belt full of knives. He also carried a silenced sniper rifle. The kid driving was a short, stocky black kid. He carried a mini gun with ammo all around his belt. Three more kids jumped out from the back of the 4 times 4. They carried shotguns, pistols and knives.

The teenagers seemed to size Ashton and Robbie up.

"Get in bro, we going home" said the first one, the black kid.

Ashton lay down in the back and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

When he woke up, he felt an odd sense of deja vu. He pulled himself out of the fluffy mattress he was on and looked around. He was in Sleepys. He pulled himself up and went to the door, opened it and cursed in amazement. He was in Kings Plaza. It was fresh, clean, and well organized. There were kids from around 5 to 16 helping with chores and farming. Kids talked, played and generally had fun. He saw 4, 5 year olds playing in Spirit Halloween. He saw war parties and scouting parties discussing their next move. This… was perfect. It seemed so peaceful, so good. Then the announcement amplifier suddenly blared.

"Anyone who is interested in Mission Marine Parkway Bridge report to headquarters

downstairs".

Curious, Ashton went downstairs, and followed the general noise. He heard the black kid giving a speech.

"Yo! Y'all here this. Some prick started a fire, the wind has been helping us, but when it turns, we'll all die from the fire. Our best hope is to destroy the suspension cables by the bridge. That'll stop the fire from spreading". Little did the kids there no, but many of them would perish in the "Harmless" mission.